Etherington-Baril Ridge (Three Cairns)


Kananaskis, Canada

10 May 2019

With Wen

 

Minimal effort for brilliant views

 

This little ridge has always been off my radar until I somehow came across it while scanning through some hiking maps the other day. I was looking for a short hike with minimal snow cover/avalanche danger, but also something off the beaten track that would offer us (hopefully) some great views. Etherington-Baril Ridge, also known as Three Cairns, fit the bill perfectly.

Most of the snow had already melted on the snowmobile trail along Etherington Creek and there was no snow at all when we started up the south end of the ridge. We were quite surprised how steep the initial part of the ridge is! There is no trail, only a few faint game tracks crossing the slope, so we just went straight up and through a small stretch of trees and bushes requiring light bushwhacking. After the initial steep section was done we gained the rocky ridge crest (no scrambling needed) and followed it all the way to the top. We both felt that, other than the short shrubby section, the entire hike was very relaxed and enjoyable.

The summit with its three cairns was a great spot to sit down, take a rest, and soak in the beautiful scenery in front of us. Mount Armstrong and Baril Peak are the eye-catchers to the west, while mighty Mist Mountain shows up quite nicely in the distance to the north. It was warm, near windless, and even the sun eventually made an appearance. What a wonderful little piece of heaven here!

After an extended lunch break we leisurely hiked back down the same way. The whole trip ended up taking us a full four hours but I’m pretty sure it could easily be done in three hours or less if you don’t dawdle like we did.

 

Elevation:

2120 m  (my GPS)

Elevation gain:

510 m

Time:

4 h

Distance:

7.2 km

Difficulty level:

Easy (Kane), T3 (SAC)

Reference:

Bob Spirko, explor8ion

Personal rating:

3 (out of 5)

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Etherington-Baril Ridge from the trailhead.
A recently renovated bridge leads over Etherington Creek to the south end of the ridge.
Grunting up the start of the ridge. No trails here.
A short stint of bushwhacking – just to switch things up a bit.
The lower slopes of the ridge are surprisingly steep!
Finally on solid rock.
Looking SE towards Mount Burke (L) and Sentinel Peak (R).
Close-up of Mount Burke, a great off-season scramble. There’s an old fire lookout on top that can barely be seen in this photo.
I’m not sure which mountain this is south of here. Perhaps Gould Dome?
Much of the rock along the bare ridge is composed of crumbly conglomerate.
Easy hiking on the upper part of the ridge.
Dark clouds in the skies to the south form this dramatic view of Beehive Mountain.
Pleasant ridge walking.
Prairie crocus. It’s almost mid-May but feels like the beginning of spring.
Looking back (south) along the ridge towards Raspberry Ridge.
Arriving at the summit.
Three cairns mark the high point of the ridge.
You could continue north along the ridge, but I’m not sure how long it would take before you’d end up bushwhacking through the forest. Coyote Hill on the right is also completely snow-free.
Mount Head (L) and Holy Cross Mountain (R) to the NE of here are still snow-clad.
What a panorama! Mount Armstrong (R) and Baril Peak (L) lie directly west of here.
Close-up of beautiful Baril Peak.
Tons of exciting peaks to explore in this area.
Mount Armstrong (L) and Mount McLaren (centre). The pointed peak on the right is perhaps the informally named “Mount ArmLaren”.

In this section

Kananaskis Allsmoke Mountain Ben’s Hill Blue Ridge Bluerock Mountain Bull Creek Hills Cat Creek Hills & Stony Ridge Channel Ridge Commonwealth Peak Compression Ridge Cox Hill Coyote Hills Cummings Ridge East End of Rundle Etherington-Baril Ridge (Three Cairns) Forgetmenot Ridge & Mountain Gilligan Peak Glasgow North & Garriochmill Peak Green Mountain Gunnery Mountain Ha Ling Peak & Miner’s Peak Hailstone Butte, Sentinel Peak & Iron Creek Mountain Heart Mountain Hell’s Ridge Highwood Peak Hill of the Flowers Holy Cross Mountain Hood, Mount Horton Hill & Horton Ridge Iyarhe Ipan, Swany’s Ridge & Quirk Ridge Jumpingpound Mountain Kidd South, Mount Link Hill & Vents Ridge Little Lougheed Lookout Range to Mount Burke Lusk Ridge Mesa Butte Missinglink Mountain Mist Mountain Mist Ridge Moose Mountain Mount Barwell Mount Bogart Mount Bryant Mount Burns East Peak (attempt) Mount Denny & Mount Potts Mount Dyson Mount Evan-Thomas Mount French & Mount Jellicoe Mount Head Mount Howard Mount James Walker Mount Lorette & Skogan Peak Mount Lougheed I Mount Mann Mount McPhail Mount Muir Mount Quirk Mount Remus Mustang Hills Odlum Ridge Old Baldy Mountain Opal Ridge South Opal Ridge Traverse Packenham Junior Pasque Mountain Pigeon Mountain Pocaterra Ridge Powderface Ridge Powderface Ridge (south route) Prairie Mountain Raspberry Ridge Red Peak Red Ridge Running Rain Peak & Mount Odlum Serendipity Peak & Patterson’s Peak Seventy Buck & Eagle Hill Ship’s Prow Mountain Shunga-la-she & Jägermeister Peak Snow Peak Storelk Mountain Strawberry Hills The Orphan Tower, The Volcano Ridge Windtower Windy Point Ridge & Gleason Ridge Yates Mountain Zephyr Creek Hills

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